It’s automatic and only has one pedal, the brake. The other one is seemingly glued to the floor.

Couldn't agree more, I had a discussion with someone who bought a bargain 206 Pug for 9k? I argued my Jag X300 was more economical overall, they didn't get it at all, seemingly only to focus on how much fuel they put in and ignores the fact I had paid 7k less for the Jag and probably got a better price when sold than they got for the Peugeot, ok I know it is shocking when you do a few miles, but they were paying a fortune in HP each month just to pay for the stupid rattly old thing, me I'd rather buy a nice older Jag for next to nothing and spend the money on fuel and enjoy the experience of driving my favourite cars.

I had an x300 3.2 and used to average 19mpg, this was mainly short runs to a from work, on a run it would get 26mpg, the same run on the x350 3.5 is returning over 30mpg, mainly due to the high gearing and perhaps the lighter weight. My experience so far of the V8 is that is a much better engine in terms of power delivery, but is addictive, the sound encourages spirited blasts, followed by effortless high speed cruising, compared with the straight six, which I found to be rather gutless at low to medium rpm and a bit high revving for cruising at speed.

Get the V8, try and get latest model you can to avoid the reliability problems of early ones.